As currently construed, a fighter and/or shuttle can launch and traverse the entire board. Maybe they should have a "gas tank", which would need another indicator (by the shields bar?) for fuel status. Maybe shuttles would 4 {or some high number, 10x??} the amount of fuel that fighters do. On the other hand, I'd hate to see some poor fighter jock sitting there in space, yelling for a pick-me-up. Maybe the fuel should only be used when the BOOST is engaged. Run out of "booster fuel", no more BOOST. {But one can still fly @ normal speed.} Thoughts?? __________________on TeamSpeak as GreyBeard {the Grim} ;-)Chief Engineer of the Fulminata, one of the Pirates Of BeechWood!

The latter is what I have suggested. Single seat craft would have a "fuel" or energy gauge across the bottom of the screen, and as Boost is used, the energy is used up. The energy could also be used to power the beams, although I'm not sure I want the fighters to be stranded without any way to defend themselves.

I believe the intention is, though, that pilots should never, ever find themselves stranded away from the carrier with no way to get back. (Outside of the carrier turning around and picking them up) You SHOULD be able to travel to anywhere on the map, if you allow enough time to get there. Using fuel for Boost would not leave you stranded, you could either conserve your Boost on the way to the destination, or just take that much longer to get back.

I don't believe this should cause any type of penalty, I think this feature should be in the game only for the sake of realism. The same goes for limited missiles when resupplying at the carrier. I wouldn't want it to be complicated or difficult for fighters to be resupplied, but add something that suggests that missiles aren't just being spontaneously spawned out of nowhere.

I'll add that it is possible for the player ships to go anywhere on the map with no energy cost, as long as they travel at Impulse. It is only Warp or Jump that costs energy. Boost isn't Warp exactly, it's about 1/3 of Warp 1, to be honest, but it could cost energy.

I don't think we will ever see any feature that leaves any player stranded or helpless, or even bored. Players are at least actively doing something when holding down the [BOOST] button. I think there's no harm in letting them continue to move at that speed.

In the future I could imagine different cargo carrying capacities for different shuttles. Perhaps Medium shuttles can carry one unit of cargo while LR shuttles can carry two units. (Maybe LR stands for Load Redoubled).

I could also imagine powerups for shuttles and fighters. Speed boosts and damage healing would be especially useful, though damage healing in deep space would be hard to explain. Maybe little repair robots?__________________"The Admiralty had demanded six ships; the economists offered four; and we finally compromised on eight."- Winston Churchill

Maybe the boost could be limited to 2x speed once fuel runs out, although if the fighter is running on regenerating power it doesn't make sense for there to still be two levels of speed. Why doesn't the fighter just run at that speed all the time?

Of course, technically speaking, a body in space should be able to move at any constant speed up to the speed of light, no matter how fast. It doesn't take fuel to move at a constant speed, the fuel is spent on starting and stopping. Of course, Warp drive is different, which is why Warp uses energy. You need to keep spending energy or you will drop out of Warp and reduce your speed to sublight.

Of course, it's still possible that Boost uses some variant of Warp drive that folds space, but doesn't quite achieve the speed of light. You could then explain it by saying that Boost can double speed (and brake) with minimal power, but 3x speed takes fuel.

I will say that fighters are limited by time to target, if not range to target. Range is one thing, but if the battle is over and your base station is destroyed by the time you limp there on Boost you would have been much better off to dock with your carrier and Warp there.

Of course, if anyone wants to argue that shuttles or fighters should have Warp drive then that invalidates that argument.

I believe fighters have three speeds: Boost, Normal, and Brake. I also believe this is because the user interface is easy to learn, not because it is "realistic." Artemis has an easier learning curve than most fighter pilot games. I believe this is intentional. To wit:

The second most important factor in Artemis Game Design is that the laws of physics in the Artemis universe are completely different from ours.

The first most important factor in Artemis Game Design is that all players, especially newbies, should have something interesting to do at all times. When this is unrealistic we throw out the rules of reality. That is why games exist. That is why fighter pilots play blackjack and badass alien villains fly their battle wagons into black holes when you insult their mothers.

__________________"The Admiralty had demanded six ships; the economists offered four; and we finally compromised on eight."- Winston Churchill

Well, as I said, I wouldn't want it to effect the gameplay. This would be a largely cosmetic feature, to answer the question in the original post. Something to make the pilot think, "Hey, I should turn around and head back to the carrier" instead of potentially slowing down the game while his teammates try to convince him that they need him back on the ship so they can go to Warp.

The pilot already has a limited number of missiles to launch, and a limited amount of shield strength, which does not regenerate. Those should run out long before the pilot is in danger of running out of fuel, unless of course the pilot has set off across the map and is not engaging in combat, which we don't want him to do.

As a bonus, an LR shuttle really would have 50% more range, since it can go 50% faster on the same amount of energy. In practice, I would expect the pilot to get bored with holding down the Boost button long before he runs out of fuel.

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